Evan is Seven!

Joining so many others, Evan enjoyed a lockdown birthday complete with Lego School, a family Lego date, notes and greetings from friends, swimming, a water balloon fight and a movie on the roof after dark.  He was just thrilled that it was his birthday and so were we.  He is still our observant, frank, creative, tough and somewhat magical boy and we loved celebrating him…even if all we had to wrap for him was a box of fruit loops.  No skin off his nose.  He’s a joy.

Lockdown Foraging

Like all the world, we are experiencing the uniqueness of this Spring in all kinds of ways : beautiful, concerning, exhausting, quirky.  It is not our first rodeo when it comes to adjusting school and lifestyle for uniquely challenging times.  We are thankful for the lessons we can apply and sweet memories from past seasons.  After finding a copy of “My Side of the Mountain,” Evan became interested in survival skills.  I’m letting that flow.  Both boys love the outdoors and, like so many right now, observing wildflowers and the uncanny provision nature brings right now feels especially meaningful (we learned to watch the lillies from a beloved original teacher…).  Our rural Bedouin friends have made good use of local wild foliage (particularly mallow, called khubeza here, and stinging nettles, called “gar-ayz”) so we’ve joined them, trying our hand at foraged nettle and mallow quiche (leaving plenty of greens for the new woolly lawnmowers of course…)  Sending love from our own corner of this world and experience…

A Decade of Christmases

This December found us celebrating a 10th (!!!) Christmas here in our desert town with the community here.  What used to feel foreign has now become very much our own set of traditions and memories as a family.  Grandma’s Almond Rocca and Omi’s Stollen, stories and scriptures, our old felt advent calendar, visits to local friends and a community Christmas program…all of this makes 10 years feel like a precious gift.  This year, we took the whole month off of some of our school schedule to focus on Advent, particularly Handel’s Messiah and to take time for creativity…Also, Evan lost his first tooth on Christmas Eve, allowing Santa and the Tooth Fairy to sleigh-pool and brewing much excitement in our house.

Omi and Opa

We had the treat of a 2 week visit from Omi and Opa in November.  We were amazed at their ability to go from Bedouin tent visit in the East to chatting with refugee friends over coffee to sleeping in a cold house in a rural village to snorkeling in the sea at a nice hotel in the South.  All along the way, they shared their gifts and presence with those they met and filled our home with warmth and love.  Omi played countless games with a thrilled Caleb and Opa sat and made art with a happy Evan.  It was so nice to wake up to their presence.  We got to share some traditions like making a full Thanksgiving dinner to share with friends and egg nog and Christmas decorating.  Thank you for being with us Omi and Opa!

Nine

Our awesome Caleb turned 9 in November and his firm wish was to backpack with two good friends and to pack in a pie.  Sure enough, he loved watching this wish come true.  We also got to celebrated when his beloved Omi and Opa flew in the day after his birthday.  His Opa put his art skills to work on an awesome cake for this geography-loving boy and we shared it with his friends after they played soccer together.  We are thankful for this one and his huge heart, his curious mind, his genuine nature, and his ever present wholeheartedness…

Soap, Balm and All Things Knitted

“Mama, all I know is that, when you have friends over to make soap, I just hear a lot of Arabic and laughter coming from the kitchen…” -Caleb

Indeed, having a small and gentle hand in a refugee knitting project has been a source of steady joy for me.  Through friendship with one of the knitters,  I’ve had a loving door opened to me for friendship and creativity with these ladies.  A good friend asked me to teach some non-knitting projects to help expand the project scope a bit.  We chose olive oil soap and balm made with locally harvested olive oil, aided by the creativity and knowledge of a dear local friend who grew up in a nearby village and is a master of all things handmade it seems.  She’s kind of a soap-whisperer.   These ladies have invited me in, fed me, clothed me (some are seamstresses too!), and filled a lot of rooms with laughter and stories.  I’m so grateful….and clean…

Mosaics

I took a walk in the late Summer’s sun

Hair pulled back in a wispy bun

Beneath my feet, a broken sound

Pieces strewn along the ground

I knelt to pluck a shapely shard

Etched in blue, jagged and hard

Beside it lie a ceramic stone

Of yellow tea cup, tossed and alone

On roads of past enameled glories

Colored seeds tell kitchen stories

My sons and I, we pick them up

A flowered pot, a shattered cup

Relics chosen, ideas indulging

We climb a hill, our pockets bulging

For broken pieces, odd and forgot

Make glorious art that can’t be bought

Or copied or stamped or reproduced

No, mosaics live when the mind is loosed

We’ll mix corn flour, bicarb and water

Press treasures in, prismatic fodder

Shapes and colors wedged and fitted

Meandering stories, mismatch permitted

Synthesis from the cracked and tossed

The dusty, forgotten, trampled and lost

When fitted together by loving hands

Make art that only the broken can

All The Things That Grow

We miss our neighbor’s chickens, but their transfer to a new home meant that we could plant more things in our garden this year.  And we did.  In our wonky way.  Some things we planted never came up.  And some things we never planted produced beautifully.  So it goes!  We harvested figs on behalf of traveling neighbors and stirred them with lots of sugar on the stove to make jam.  We grew cabbages and, when they were ready, we tried our hand at Malfouf, a local cabbage dish that tastes best with lots of lemon and pepper.  I think that was our first and last time making it.  We have a new respect for the beautiful Arab mamas that spend the morning lovingly stuffing those cabbage leaves.  Amazing.  Still, being able to slip downstairs and pluck some tomatoes from their earthy aromatic vines or snip some kale or grab a pepper for a recipe felt like a gift this Summer, quirky as our garden may be.

Camp

I love Summer here in our town.  A lot of people with kids skip town for the Summer each year and I totally understand – we travel for at least part of the Summer every two years.  On the years we settle in for the Summer, I have grown to love the quiet alternative rhythm, the people we connect with because of the lull, and the push/chance to be creative.  Because of their ages, I find myself calling everything we do to fill our days “camp”…art camp, soccer camp, math camp…It’s just an excuse to focus in on something and try all the things we don’t have time for during the school year…  The boys also got to attend a real camp : a two-week soccer day camp where many of the counselors were from our national women’s soccer team.  So cool.  They played hard and made great friends.  Still, we love the return to our little farm space and the homemade Summer rhythm here too.

He’s 6

I associated a temporary magic  with the preschool season and reluctantly said goodbye to that stage as Evan quietly and confidently marched into the world of reading  and trying all kinds of new things this last year.  It turns out, this boy’s magic is not age-related and it’s here to stay.  He is a total joy.  Evan loves drawing and legos, books and humor, dancing and soccer, silliness and anything outdoors.  He is a vibrant encourager but not a people pleaser and he makes a solid friend.  He has a beautiful relationship with his brother, squabbles included.  This year, we exchanged the watermelon cake for lego brownies per his request, sharing them with school mates.  We love swimming on his birthday and shared an afternoon with friends, celebrating a shared birthday with his sweet buddy, Elissa.  We also visited his Bedouin twin friends who share his exact birthday, exchanging gifts and playing hide and seek.  You are a gift, Evan.

Oh Thank You For Waiting

While we were still in Seattle, we heard reports of a longer-than-usual rainy season in our desert town.  My heart held a little hope that Spring would wait for us to return.  Sure enough, we arrived just in time for a deeply-flowered, grass-where-we’ve-never-seen-it Spring.  We played and hiked and camped and climbed and made cakes just for the sake of adding edible flowers.   I keep a plate made by a new friend in the center of our table, reminding me of new life and of special grace over the unique Winter.  Also, I found my first wild chamomile, thanks to a foraging neighbor, and happily dried it with mint for tea…We didn’t miss a thing.

Urban PNW Schooling

Just a few more notes and photos from this unique pocket of time where I pretended to be an urban Pacific Northwest mom for 6 weeks… We got in some schooling, partly for the sake of stability and routine, but it was heavily modified due to our situation, as I expected.  Some of my favorite memories include nature hikes and journalling over sack lunches, joining the local climbing gym as a family, and getting to know the flora and sea life, museums and city landmarks.  Kids were great at including and inviting our boys right in.  Our boys learned a bit about cancer and about seasons that are not about them, but are about sticking together and pulling in close.  They learned about seizing beautiful moments and having some serious adventures and fun because these mark the time and give it rhythm.  They learned about slowing down for another’s needs and soaking in time together.  They loved the city and surrounding nature and we even snuck in a bit of math and writing…Oh and the library!  Thank you Benjamin Franklin.

A Unique Season

These last two months, we traveled as a family to the Pacific Northwest to be with loved ones through cancer treatment far from their home.  It was a unique and serious situation and it was an honor to be there.  While I don’t have any nice words to say about cancer itself, I could not miss the way little moments and opportunities feel more poignantly beautiful.  They say that happens – almost more crisp and full of light somehow. Also, the way people reach out from all different directions and give – a car to use, a home to stay in, a guitar to play, prayers and words of encouragement, a warm meal after a chemo day, a memorable day kayaking, a buoying visit from loved ones…even the homemade quilts in a host family’s rooms felt like a hug somehow.

In a Desert Winter

I asked Caleb to write a poem using “In a Desert Winter” as his first line based on Christina Rossetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter” because we’d been studying it a bit.  I like peeking into his impressions of his world, the paradox he observes.  I think he captured our desert winter experiences better than I ever could.  Here is his poem (with, ahem, custom illustrations by Evan and Caleb respectively…a Merry Christmas greeting from us!)

In a desert winter,

 Freezing winds blew,

Which made the tents grow warmer,

The Bedouin wear heavy farwas,

Big dust storms blew and blew,

On the freezing cliffs,

The Bedouin left,

When the small snowfalls came,

The Bedouin left too.

In a desert winter,

Goats go into their stalls,

The Bedouin baked warm bread,

Lots and lots of rain came down,

On Christmas Day.

Sahlab

At the end of November, as the weather cools, we start looking for sahlab in the souq.  Usually replacing Summer’s ice cream at the same stands, it is comfort in a cup: milky, sweet and belly-warming.  The internet abounds with recipes and you can purchase powdered mixes to make it.  A friend will give you her favorite method over a cup of tea.  We love the story and explanation in the book, Tea and Thread, which shares treasured recipes and handicrafts along with the stories of women and men living bravely far from home.

We don’t have anything against milk around here but I do like to play with plant-based re-inventions of classics sometimes (I have a beautiful new sister-in-law who veers toward plant-based options).  So, here is a cashew and date-based sahlab recipe.  Enjoy the classic version or a plant-based version this Winter and let this cozy street-side drink warm you right up…

Recipe:

You will need:

1/2 cup cashews (raw or roasted but not salted)

2 cups warm water

3 medjool dates (pitted)

1 tsp. vanilla

1.5 Tbs arrowroot powder or constarch

optional: 1Tbs orange juice or rosewater

toppings: orange zest, shredded coconut, cinnamon, cloves (if using orange)

Method:

Cover the cashews and dates with hot water and soak for at least 2 hours.

Place soaked and drained cashews and dates in blender with vanilla.  Add 2 cups of warm water to blender and blend on high for about 45 seconds

Place 1 cup of the mixture in a saucepan and heat to a simmer

Meanwhile, stir cornstarch or arrowroot powder into the other cup of cashew milk and combine well.

Add the cornstarch or arrowroot mixture to the cashew milk in the saucepan, stirring constantly until thickened to the consistency of a runny custard. (Classic sahlab is very sweet – to replicate this, add sweetener of your choice to taste at this point.  Or skip this step and make a milder version.)

Stir in orange juice or rosewater

Pour into mugs and sprinkle with toppings of your choice.  Enjoy hot.

The Great Eight

Caleb is 8!  It always seems appropriate that his birthday is near Thanksgiving.  We are thankful for so much about him : a sponge-like mind that especially loves history/geography and math, an open heart to all kinds of people and loyalty to friends, honesty and great ability to express his thoughts, amazing energy, and a beautiful heart.  We learn so much from this dear one.  He celebrated with pumpkin pie (his request) and a birthday song at a harvest party.  Singing happy birthday meant his friends sang to him in 4 different languages!  What an honor.  He also had a chance to play laser tag with some friends and their dads.

Lebneh

A few years ago, an ill patient kept losing weight due to medications and illness and depression.  My neighbor noticed and did what only a wise, experienced local grandmother would know to do: she rolled up her sleeves and made her some homemade lebneh.  My neighbor grew up making this from goats she raised and, sure enough, the comfort food lifted the patient’s spirits and she ate up.

Basic lebneh is really just strained yogurt cheese and we can buy it at any corner market.  We spread it on bread with jam or with vegetables.  We stir it into soup or dollop it on our tacos.  But what my friend made were lebneh balls and these are a little bit special.  Like all good traditional food, they take a little time and attention.

One makes lebneh balls by filling a cheesecloth bag with whole milk yogurt.  Add 1-2 tsp of salt, close the bag and set it over a colander balanced over a bowl to catch the whey that will drain off.  You can set a plate over the bag as a weight and leave it to drain for anywhere from 48 hours to several days.

What you get is a mild, tangy and spreadable cheese you can store as little balls in olive oil for quite some time.  For one of our sons, zaatar is a love language so we rolled some of our balls in zaatar before storing.  Lebneh balls are just delicious.  Here is a little photo demo of the steps to make them.  All you really need is yogurt, salt, a bag for straining, a strainer and a bowl.

Return to Rhythms

We are back in our home and rhythms.  For us, that means our beloved vegetable stand, documenting the subtle Autumn changes, reconnecting with local and international friend, a bit of camping, reading and school and all of the weekly activities that give the seasons shape.  Oh, and washing off all of that impressive dirt at the end of it all.  Sheesh.  The dirt!

Sweetness in Montana

We spent the last of our US time in Montana, where we soaked in beautiful mountains and rivers, chances to run in the hills and wade in cold water.  We snuggled sweet new babies and played with toddler cousins.  We got to visit lots of family and see an original family homestead.  Our hearts are full as we soak it all in and prepare to return to the Middle East.

All things good in California

Our time in the US started in California with lots of loved ones – friends and dear family.  We celebrated a marriage and played so hard with cousins, climbing and swimming and attending family camp together…

Warm

Before we travel to see loved ones Stateside this Summer, we made sure to enjoy all the things we like so much about Summer here.  Summers have been so draining at times in the past that it feels good to have found ways to truly enjoy it here – we didn’t want to miss out! With warm memories from last Summer, we focused on ice cream, couple’s kombucha on the roof while watching for owls, creating with friends, gentle farewells to co-workers, lots of roof pool time and eating outside, and visiting in the desert.  A friend also visited and we splashed and swam in a wadi.  Warm memories tucked away again…we feel so rich.

He’s Five!

If I could put age four in a bottle, I would.  Then I could take it out every so once in awhile and take a little sip.  I just think it is a magical age full of imagination, silly songs, stories, words and concepts coming together, and lots of snuggling.  Evan blossomed so much this past year and I suspect age five is going to be just as sweet.  He still loves to express himself in drawings, silly songs, and imaginative stories.  Evan’s got a strong sense of who he is and a confidence that makes him a joy to be around.  He makes friends with people of all ages and backgrounds.  He is also just such a lover, full of snuggles and kisses.  To celebrate his birthday this year, he asked for a watermelon cake again (lucky Mama!) and had a simple party with a few friends over for swimming and water balloons.  We loved the creative homemade gifts they brought, from drawings to a satchel to a slingshot…  We also kept the tradition of visiting his Bedouin twin friends, who share his birthday.